FORMATION ATTACK STRATEGIES. 9781105646805, 1105646807

Citation preview

Formation Attack Strategie Joel Johnson

Llfc Master JoclJohnaon U.S. Senior Champion

2007

The much awaited sequel to the beat selling book, "Formation Attacks", has arrived. "Formation Attack Strategie&" is another 500 page book, fuU of great attack

information with 579 fabulous attack games &om all

openings and all eras. The gamea provided in the book

came &om an in-depth global search for unique,

inspirational, and original attacks &om some of the world's greatest attackers. Many of the them toil in remote areas of the planet and have only a local following. Let me introduce

MA, Liu Wenzhe of China,

you to attacking players like Guy West ofNew Zealand,

Mare Esserman of Boston,

Kevin Seidler ofDenver, CO, Manuel Boaboom ofThe

Netherlands,Dharshan Kumaran of India, Padre Murphy of Ireland, to name a few. The book also contains discuuions about many attack philosophies, greater detail concerning attack sttategy and planning, more extensive information about the identification and exploitation of weaknesses, and so much more. If you are one of the many people who Iove my last book, you will be ecstatic about "Formation Attack Strategie&".

ISBI " 'f' lT r - s 9 rr 9 781105 646805

Formation Attack Strategies Joel Johnson Edited by: Eric Harnmond

© Joel Joh nson, June 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted in any form by any means, electron ic, mechan ical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from Joel Johnson.

Edited by:

Eric Harnmond

Cover Photography:

Ba rry M . Evans

Cover Design :

Joel Johnson

Game Searching:

Joel Johnson, Richard J. Cowan, William Pa rker

Proofreading:

Joel Johnson

Game Contributors:

Brian Wall, Jack Young, Clyde Nakamura, James Rizzitano, Keith Hayward, Hai Terrie, Richard Cowan, Jesus Seoane, William Parker, Dom ingos Perego

Linares Diagram and Linares Figurine fonts © 1993-2003 by Alpine Electronics, Steve Sm ith Alpine Electron ics 703 lvinson Ave. Laramie, WY 82070 Email: Alpine Chess Fonts ([email protected]) Website: http://www.partae.com/fonts/

ln Memoriam to my good buddy and 2007 U.S. Senior Championship roommate: Walter Schreiner, 01/05/1937- 04/28/2012

Contents

CONTENTS10

Preface

10 11

Kudos Purpose of the Book

Harry Ly man

12

Education Chess ln The Schools Chess Friendships and Sportsmanship Eu logy for Harry lyman ( by Shelby lyman) Ha rry lyman Games

12 13 14 15 17

22

Passing The Torch

22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 31 32 32 32 33 33 34 35 36 37 38 38

Joshua Zhu Richard Cowan Matthew Miller Luke Miller Noah Raskin Eric Harnmond Jimi Sullivan Phil Terri ll Austin Terrill Bailey Vidler Clark Vid ler Michael Oldehoff Bogdan Anghel Rich Desmarais Nick Desmarais Joe Range Jamie Aronson Bernabe Garcia Nancy Jones Adam Ne hmeh Paul Nehmeh

3

Formation Attack Strategies

Section A- Attack Philosoph ies

40

Personal Develop m ent

41

Fra m e of Mind

43

Dual Aspects of Chess

46

Chess Mechanics Chess Strategy

46 47

Chess Openings

47

Work on Weaknesses

48

Player lnfluences

48

The Legend of John Curdo

56

Ti me Pressure

56

lnti m idation

57

Relentless Attack

60

Out of Ammo? Out of Control?

65 65

Section B - Attack Skills

4

66

Contents

67

Pins Types of Pins Absolute Pin Normal Pin Threat Pin Exploiting a Pin Attack W ith Smaller Piece Pile On Replacement Attacker Exploit Unprotected Squares Tie Up Piece Pin ldentification Criss-Cross Pins Double Pins Backtire Pin

67 67 67 69 71 71 71 72 72 73 74 76 78 78

82

Trojan Pawns

82 86 89 92 93 95 97 98 99

Development Advantage Create a Passed Pawn Trap a Piece Weaken Pawn Structure Open Lines of Attack Block an Attack Lure the King into the Open Free U p Pieces Box ln Pieces

Pawn Storm Techniques

100 100 101 102 103 104 105

Fianchetto Bishop h6 Played W ith 4Jf6 h6 Played - no Piece on f6 Early g4 to Open the g-file §.g8 to Prepare g5 Early g6

5

Formation Attack Strategies

108

Invisible Defender Tactic Knight Fork Exa m ples Defender Attack/Pin Exam ples Skewer Example Double Attack Exam ple Disconnect Examples Weak Sq uares Exa mples Attack and Defend Example Hope Chess Invisible Defender Example

109 110 112 113 113 115 116 117

Rook Lifts

118

Section C- Attack Strategies

120

Opening Strategies

121

Aceurate Piece Values

138

Dual Points of View

144 144 144 144

Ca lculation View Strategkai View Three Minute Chess

150

Planning

150 150 152 161

What is a Plan? Short term Planning Long term P lanning Position Scrutiny

162

Fatai VVeaknesses

162 165 166

Weakness - h7 Square Weakness - g7 Square Weakness - e6 Square

6

Contents

Fatal Weaknesses {Continued) Weakness - light Squares Wea kness - Dark Squares Wea kness - Work Over Weak Squares ( Both Colors)

168 173 177

Section D - Atta ck Motifs

179

Back Rank Misery

180

Wind mill Attack

192

Smothered Mate

202

Knightmares

211

Replace ment Attacker

217

Killer Pin

226

h-file Mate

2 36

Opposite Colored Bishops

245

Separation of Forces

2 54

The Wedge

261

Play My Opening?

2 72

Obscure lines 4. Jlc4 Une with 5 . ... Jlf5

276 276

7

Formation Attack Strategies

Play My Opening? (Continued) Four Pawns Attack Early eS by Black 4 . dxe5 inviting 6. 4:Jxf7 Une ...

277 278

Creative Thinkers

284

Fishing Pole

289

Fishing Pole Basics History White Accepts the Trojan Knight White blunders with f!.el White plays 4:Jf5 , 4:Jxg7+, followed b y 4:Jf5 White trades on c6 Plan B : Pawn Storm Other Openings G ra n dmasters Using the Fishing Pole Fishing without a Pole Abstract Fishing Pole Conclusion

290 293 297 300 300 304 308 311 315 317 318 319

321

.i}. x h7 Sacrifice Fishing Pole Theme Offer You Ca nnot Refuse? King Heads for Open Space Knight Pla nted on d6 Knight Pin Rook Lift Must See to Believe Axh7 + Followed by Laydown Sacrifice Double Bishop Sacrifice

324 327 328 330 330 331 332 332 333

336

.i}. x h6 Sacrifice

8

Contents

Exchange Sa_crifice

346

Lay Down Sacrifice

355

4)f5 Sacrifice

370

4)d5 Sacrifice

379

Invisible Defender

388

Who Needs a Queen?

401

Queen For Minors

423

Pawn Stor m

435

Opposite Side Castling

453 455 457 459 466

Speed Attacks Slow Pawn Storms One Side Has No Attack Dog Fights

47 1

King Hunt

471 474 475 478

Guidelines for King H u nting it xf7+ Queen Sacrifices Backtire Games

G lossary of Term s

480

Opening Index

486 9

Formation Attack Strategies attacking games was far more extensive and led to the discovery of many relatively u n known After completing my first book, a attacking players. ln addition, by th ree-year project entitled, writing the first book, 1 noticed Formation Attacks, 1 was that my own attacking skills exhausted . The thought of actually improved greatly. I found myself repeating the process of writing considering and implementing a nother book seemed insane. But several of the new attacking ideas as time went by and I started to into my games. receive all of the awesome responses from readers and 1 had As in the first book, many different several months to reflect on my openings and eras have been accom plishm ent, I understood covered. This book is organized by that writing a book is weil worth attack themes, including a chapter the hard work. devoted entirely to the Jack Young "Fis hing Pole" . Players like Jack Even though my first book Young, Brian Wall, Clyde Formation Attacks contains 435 Nakamura, Joh nny Hector, Eric great games, to my dismay, 1 was Schiller, etc. make chess fu n with forced to cut many incredible their unusual and unique views. gam es worthy of being pu blished . Many of us in the chess world tru ly My focus in the first book was to : appreciate their efforts, as they provide us with a realistic method 1) eliminate gam es not ending in of taking down those seemingly checkmate; invincible "Chess Goliaths" .

Preface

2) keep all the "famous" ga mes and; 3 ) s howcase many of the well-known attacking players, along with several of my own games. ln this book, my search for

Kudos A book like this req uires a great amount of time and effort from more than one person. 1 am grateful to all of those who helped make this dream a reality. One of the key issues with my first book

10

Preface was editing and Eric Harnmond has stepped torward to fill the void and done a marvelous job. I cannot thank him enough for his efforts. ln addition, Richard Cowan and William Parker were extremely helpful in finding new games for the book. Their contributions can be found throughout the book. Loads of games were passed along b y Brian Wall, Jack Young, Clyde Nakamura, Jesus Seoane, Domingos Perego, Hai Terrie, James Rizzitano, Keith Hayward, Richard Cowan, and William Parker. Thanks to all of you and to the many others who had a hand in creating this book, no matter how small. "Thanks to all of you"

Purpose of the Book What I have attempted to accomplish with this book is: 1 ) explain the two views of the chessboard; 2) discuss many types of attack ph ilosoph ies and provide some insight into the head of a Chess Master; 3) introduce attack strategy and planning;

4) provide more extensive information a bout the identification and exploitation of weaknesses; 5) illustrate many attack ga mes and attack ideas by attack motif ( Fishing Pole, Opposite Side Castling, Pawn Storms, etc . ) . Because of the infinite n u m ber o f positions in chess, it i s impossible to show every possible attack. lnstead, this book tackles many of the most common attacking motifs with many great u n known attack games from the past and present in one convenient source. Th is book is less concerned ab out the ea rly part of the game, in w hich some gam es may include unsound play, as long as the execution of the attack is relevant. My hope is t hat the contents of this book educate you on the many types of attacking strategies and further inspire you to expand you r attacking skills.

"Attack ! !"

11

Formation Attack Strategies

Education

Ha rry Lym a n Once again I a m dedicating this book to my chess idol, the late, great chess coach, Master Emeritus Harry lyman. Ha rry equipped me with the skills ' knowledge, and imagination necessary to play attacking chess. 1 was always amazed at the number of incredible ideas t hat would stream from h is mind. No matter how dull or uneventful the position, he contin ually found spectacular moves that I had not even considered. Many of these ideas involved some type of sacrifice or tempo gain (and many times bot h ) . Harry lyman's legacy lives o n through t h e imaginative chess ideas and information passed onto my students. The chapter entitled, "Passing the Torch" s howcases some of the better efforts of my students, inspired by the principles taught by H a rry. Other lessons learned from H a rry relate to life itself ­ aspects of chess that are rarely discussed . Ha rry had a saying, "Chess makes kids smarter!"

Harry was a firm believer in the value of an education. 1 had dropped o ut of college (Math M ajor) and wasn't doing a Iot with my life other t han chess. At one of our training sessions, Harry asked me about my future work/school plans. As the discussion progressed, Harry brought up the idea of returning to school by attending a computer programm ing school. He mentioned a tech nical school called Computer learning Center where I cou ld get the education needed to get into the field. At the time, computers were in their infancy and the only school around that I knew of with a Computer Science program was M IT. So 1 checked it out and roughly 2-3 yea rs later I returned from los Angeles, a graduate of Computer learning Center. I worked successfully as a Computer Program mer for over 27 years. Tha nks Harry ! As a chess coach these days, 1 strongly encou rage my students to remain in school and inform both them and their parents a bout the many opportu n ities that exist for

12

Harry lyman chess scholarships to u niversities. Two of my stu dents recently earned scholarships, one to University of California, Berkeley (An u Menon) and the other to Texas Tech (Ethan Morga n ) . Congrats !

Chess in the Schools ln the early 80s, a few chess surveys where done trying to determ ine the effect chess has on elementary school student verbal and math test scores. Nearly everyone expected the math scores to rise, based on the common logic skills, but few rea lized how much of an im pact chess has on verbal skills. These surveys all illustrated with one hundred percent certainty, that chess has a sign ificant positive effect on elementary school students.

1986, the American Chess Foundation changed its name and primary purpose in life. The new name would be "Chess in the Schools". The new purpose of the program would be to get chess into the America n school system. Centered in the heart of New York City, they took their program into the hood. The resu lts have been staggering. The program not only raised test scores in the schools with the chess program but it a lso had positive effects related to red ucing youth violence and increasing school attendance, among other improvements. Today, Chess in the Schools teaches chess to 38,000 students every school year in 160 elementary schools all over N ew York City. However despite t heir success, chess had been slow to reach schools in the heartland. With the exception of a few schools with hard working and caring teachers, most districts were satisfied with the status quo.

Ha rry Lyman funded the trans lation of one of these studies and presented his findings, entitled "Chess in the Classroom" to the America n Chess Foundatio n . Thanks to Stan Nawrocki I possess But the times, t hey a re a changing! The status quo is no Ionger a copy of this fine document. acceptable. Teacher apathy has been replaced with national As a resu lt ofthe study, a round

13

Formation Attack Strategies testing and teacher accountability. Many school districts have gone as far as tying teacher raises to test scores. ( N ot to mention, parents tired of watehing their c hildren spending a countless n u m ber of wasted hours on TV and video games. ) The resu lt is c hess being taught in schools everywh ere. Companies built entirely around teac hing chess in the schools have popped up in state after state. Thousands of young children across the country are now playing chess at school.

that chess provides. He knew how the game inspires creative, patient, disciplined, and organized thought. He saw how lifelong friendships and bonds grew out of the game of chess. He also would have enjoyed the following story too.

Chess Friendships and Sports manship

Every yea r tournament directors of scholastic chess tournaments encounter some amazing issue Another d riving force is the high involving a couple of chess players. nu m ber of un iversities across the This particular incident was cou ntry offering chess scholars hips relayed to me by Phii Terrill a to entrants who excel in the royal couple of years back. game. Some smaller un iversities have tu rned to c hess in order to Picture this, one little b ring recognition for their kindergarten boy is playing a little u niversity. Schools like U niversity kindergarten girl. The girl decides of Texas - Dallas ( UTD), U n iversity to ask the boy, "if I move my of M a ryland Saltimore County Queen here, will you pinky swear ( U M BC), and Texas Tec h have led not to take it?" like nearly every the way. boy that has been confronted with Ha rry would have been pleased by the increase in chess scholarships to un iversities. He believed that chess s hould be an integral part of a child's ed ucation because he u nderstood the practical benefits

such a proposal, he readily agrees. So the little girl bravely ventures forth her most valuable chess piece, the big Queen onto the enda ngered square. ln a mere instance, without any remorse or sym pathy for his actions, the

14

Harry lyman young lad snatches her Queen from the board . Almost immediately, the girl raises her hand to flag down a tournament director. After hearing both sides of the story, the tournament director decided to give the little girl her Queen back and restored the position. Chess teaches us many lessons about life and they start early on. Would you be surprised if those two children became the best of friends? Not me, because nearly all of my best friends are c hess players.

"if I move my Queen here, will you pinky swear not to take it?"

He took his passage from us as he took each moment that he lived, with curiosity, warmth, humor and Iove. Despite a wasting il lness that left him incapacitated. "Thank you dear", he wou ld say even in his moments of greatest weakness for each thing, small or la rge, that was done for him. Or consolingly '' l ' m alright dear", w h e n we winced at the evidence of h is pain and discomfort. At times, near the end, he would emerge from long periods of u n responsiveness with an eagerness to ta lk and communicate. He did not hear weil so we shouted into his ear. His talk was indistinct and seemed garbled beca use of ill fitting dentures but somehow we learned to understand him.

He would regale us with comments, questions a n d humor t hat had us laughing without stop, sometimes u p roariously. Typical Dear Friends, was the time he remarked on the attractiveness of several women in On September 5, 1999, Harry the room. When, I inquired Lyman passed away. He did not go jokingly, "What about me Ha rry?" willingly. lt was not that he was He looked in my direction and afraid of his own personal death or smiled, "You have some rough dissolution. Such matters were not spots", he said. of the slightest concern to him.

Eulogy for Harry Ly man By Shelby Ly man

H e virtually never talked a bout

15

Formation Attack Strategies his very hopeless physical condition or himself, although he periodically would insist on one more visit to the medical center where he might find a solution to what was for him a very puzzling state of affairs. lt seemed that he could not conceive t hat he was dying and if it were true, forever the activist, he wished to know why something cou ldn't be done a bout it. As many of you a re aware from reading Harold Dondis' column, he awoke one morning, a day or two before his death, looked directly at me and asked : "Shelby, do you have a good move ?" He loved each moment of his life and the people in it too much to consider the possibility of leaving them. Each moment was part of an ongoing and happy adventure. At the end, he was 84 yea rs old but H arry, I think we can all agree, was truly ageless. The youngest of six children, a radiant and inte lligent c hild, according to his 90 year old sister, he was doted on by his older siblings and by his mother, my grandmother, who herself had a rare Iove and passion for life. A romantic, she was fond of poetry and song. Like the wonderfu l

Mikhail Tal, my uncle's heart was always filled with sunshine. Despite the poverty and struggle of immigrant fami lies in those days, he seemed to have had, as the youn gest, a relatively carefree existence. lt is of some interest that Ha rry was an exceptional athlete. lt was not easy to know this because, as we all know, he rarely ta lked a bout himself. He was first of all a superb sprinter; his specia lty the 220 ya rd dash, at Roxbury Memorial High School, in Dorchester, where he was co-captain of the track team. Appa rently he broke severa l citywide records before suffering a leg injury. According to a former boyhood acquaintance he was also an excellent baseball player. As an outfielder, he was considered by his Derchester c hums superior to Eddie Pellagrini, also from the neigh borhood, who later played for the Boston Red Sox. Also he was marb les champion of the City of Boston and a fina list in the city tennis c hampionships for his age group. Although Harry played virtually not at all outside of .New England, he was an exceptional chess ta lent,

16

Harry Lyman best known as the P BS Chess Commentator d u ring the televised Fisch er-Spassky World Chess Champions hip match held in 1972.

much better t han h is h ighest rating may indicate. lndeed, he had a rare feeling for the in itiative and the dynamics of the game. He understood as weil as anyone, how certain kinds of positions compensated for a material disadvantage. lt was no accident that at age 60, he defeated Arthur Bisguier and d rew with Robert Byrne in New England tournaments.

Harry Lym an G a m es Ha rry was an amazing attacker. He had a knack for being able to hunt down an exposed King and coming u p with just unimaginable ideas.

On June 15 1915, Harry lym an was born. Although he passed away 84 years later on September 5th of this year, my beloved u ncle will always be with us. Micheie and I are plann ing to have etched on his gravestone the FIDE motto:

'G ENS UNA SUMM US' litera lly, these words mean "we are all one nation of people" -- a fitting epitaph, I t hink, for a man whose embrace was large enough for all of us. Shelby lyman - learned to play chess at age 9 from his uncle, Harry lyman. Shelby went on to become a Chess Master and has been the New York Times Chess Columnist for over 30 years. He is

------------ G a m e #001 ----------Lesson #1: Develop you r pieces.

{W) Harry Lym an (B) Rhea m s [CSG] lnvitation Tourney, Boston, MA, 12/3/1949

1.e4 e5 2.�f3 �c6 3.Ac4 �f6 4.d4 � xe4 5.dxe5 'i:/e7 6.0-0 �xe5 7.Ad5 �xf3+ 8.'i:/xf3 �f6 9.�c3 c6 10.Ag5 'i:/d6 Black pays for his Iack of development. Harry understood how to pressure an opponent wit h quick development and aggressive action against the enemy King.

11.�e4 'i:/xd5 12.�xf6+ gxf6 13. 'i:/xf6 1-0 17

Formation Attack Strategies

------------ G a m e #002

16.�h1 �h5 17.�a5+ b6 0-1

-----------

------------ G a m e #00 3 -----------

lesson #2: All pieces are expendable.

lesson #3: Always consider the unthinkable.

{W) To m asko (B) Harry Lym an (CSO] Boylston at lyn n, Boston M ET league, lyn n, MA, 2/28/1941

1.e4 e5 2.�f3 �c6 3.Ac4 �f6 4.d3 Ac5 5.�c3 d6 6.Ag5 h6 7.Axf6 �xf6 8.�d5 �g6 9.�h4 �g5 10.� xc7+ �dS 11.� xa8 �xh4 12.0-0 Ag4 13.�e1

{W) D. Sweet (B) Harry Lym an [A16] US Amateur Champions hip, Asbury Pa rk, NJ, 3/31/1964

1.c4 �f6 2.�c3 d5 3.cxd5 � xd5 4.g3 g6 5.Ag2 � xc3 6.bxc3 Ag7 7.�f3 c5 8.0-0 0-0 9.d4 �c6 10.Ae3 �a5 11.�b3 Ae6 12.�xb7 §fc8 13.Af4 h6 14.�e5 Axe5 15.Axe5 � xe5 16.dxe5 §ab8 17.�xe7 �xc3 18.�xa7 �xe5 19.a4 §b2 20.a5 §xe2 21.�e7

13 . ... Af3! A lay Down Sacrifice that can not be turned down d u e to �g4.

21. ... §xf2!!

14.gxf3 �d4 15. �g2 �g5+

Ha rry uncorks a shocking move !

18

Harry Lyman

22.f3} xf2? �d4+ 23.f3} e2 Ac4+ 24.f3} f3 Ad5+ 25.f3} e2 �b2+ 26.f3} e3 läbS? 27.Axd5 �d4+ 28.f3} f3 �xd5+ 29. �e4? läb3+ 30.f3} f4 �g5 # 0-1 ------------ G a m e #004 ----------Lesson #4: Do not Iet him near your King.

(W) Milt Kagan (B) Harry Ly m an [822] Match, Boston, MA, 1/16/1937

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.Ab5+ Ad7 4. �b3 dxe4 5.Ac4 e6 6. �x b7